


Evil Evolves

by Nochi



Series: Rita's Successor [5]
Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Brainwashing, Coming Out, Evil Rangers, First Kiss, Kidnapping, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:08:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23219023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nochi/pseuds/Nochi
Summary: Everything moves forward inevitably, it's just a matter of whether or not you can keep up.
Relationships: Kimberly Hart/OFC
Series: Rita's Successor [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1001181
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Angel Grove was almost _spooky_ in the dark. The construction equipment that still towered over most of the town was backlit by the full moon, making strange shapes above them and casting long shadows.

“Did it _have_ to be tonight?” Sam muttered, shoving her hands deep in her pockets. Billy nodded from where he walked beside her.

“ It was the only time I could get out of the house without my mom knowing. My room’s on the second floor and she knows when I try to sleep in the workshop.”

Sam let the wave of frustration wash over and away from her, attributing it to tiredness. She was uniquely lucky that her dad knew she was a Power Ranger, and that she could leave a note saying where she was going without the guilt of lying. He was out on a fishing boat right now, so it was a moot point, but she couldn’t — or at least shouldn’t — get annoyed with her friends for having obstacles she didn’t.

“ We’re almost there,” she said instead, as they approached the sign declaring the high school as a designated evacuation zone. After two extraterrestrial attacks in the last year (three if you counted Sam harassing the town with putties under Rita’s influence that time), there was a massive infrastructure shift happening to account for the likelihood of further dangers to the town.

The problem was, of course, the Zeo Crystal buried in the center of town. It had been there for millennia, and the insanely powerful Lord Zedd had made two attempts to take it. There was a shield protecting the area around it now, but the general populace didn’t know that. Which was probably for the best.

Sam tried not to think too much about the enormity of the secret she and the others carried. The responsibility. The weight was easier to bear with five other sets of shoulders, of course, but it was still really, _really_ heavy sometimes.

The meandering train of thought was broken by a loud sigh from Billy.

“ What’s wrong?” she asked. He shrugged, but his voice was uneasy when he responded.

“ Just...academic team stuff.”

Sam nodded sagely. “Nerd drama.”

“ There’s this new member,” Billy continued, the problem spilling out of him now that his discomfort had been acknowledged. “ _ Kane _ . He’s...well, he’s...he’s mad at me.”

“ Why?” Sam was genuinely shocked. Billy was the most amiable person she’d ever met.

“ I’m smarter than him.” Billy sounded utterly dejected at the admission, and Sam had to cover her mouth with the back of her hand to keep a laugh from escaping.

“ You’re showing him up, huh?”

“I don’t _mean_ to,” he lamented. “I’m just doing my best for the team; it’s not my fault if that’s better than his best.”

“ No, it’s not.” Sam went to clap a hand on Billy’s shoulder, then stopped herself. He didn’t always appreciate that. “Just keep doing you, man. He’ll either catch up or he won’t.”

“ Yeah.” She could hear Billy’s smile in his voice, even if she couldn’t see him properly in the night’s shadows. “Yeah. Thanks, Sam.”

“ Anytime, buddy.”  They had reached the fence surrounding the school, which they cleared with one smooth jump.

“ So where do we put this thing?” Sam asked, squinting out into the dark to try to see if they’d been spotted by anyone.

“ Somewhere we can get to easily, but not be seen.” Billy scanned around the campus.

“ The greenhouses?” Sam suggested, but Billy shook his head.

“ Too busy.” He kept looking around. “That little wooded area outside the parking lot might work.”

“ Let’s go, then.” Sam shrugged deeper into her jacket. “It’s  _ cold _ .”

Billy crouched down in the grass of the little greenspace, laying a flat disk on the ground and pulling a bunch of wires out of his bag with a square, alien-looking device.

“ What’s that?” Sam asked, looking over her shoulder. Tree cover or no, there was still the chance they’d be spotted, and Sam really didn’t want to have to knock out a security guy. Again.

“ Calibration device,” Billy said absently. “Gotta tell it where to send us.” He started connecting the disk and the box with the multiple wires.

“ Ah.” Sam turned back around just in time to catch a fist square in the nose.

She staggered to the side, clutching her face as pain bloomed out across her cheekbones and into her temples. “Jesus  _ fuck _ ,” she groaned, trying to shake stars out from behind her eyes. She saw the blurry figure heading for Billy now, who was hunched over the device like he was trying to protect it with his body. She struck out with one leg, catching it in the side, and it staggered sideways into a tree.

The moon illuminated the scene even with her distorted vision: four figures, approaching from the school parking lot. The colors were muted, but they seemed to wear the heavy flannels and thick canvas pants favored by the fishermen in town. However, the moonlight also struck something bright, almost glittering — all four of them were wearing some kind of vest, made of thin silver fabric and pinned in the center of their chest with a round medallion.

“ I can’t stop the calibration now!” Billy yelled. “It’ll fry the whole thing!”

“ Keep doing what you’re doing,” Sam called back, clenching her jaw. “I got this.”

She leapt over the figure nearest to her, catching another by the shirt collar and pulling it away as she hit the ground. The one closest to Billy turned back towards him, but she scooped up a piece of loose gravel and flung it at the back of his head.

“ You can’t stop him without me,” she sing-songed. “He’s just setting it up. I’ve got the controls.” She wiggled a small keyfob at the group. It was a garage door opener, but they didn’t need to know that. Especially since it seemed to be working, as the four of them started running towards her.

She took off for the treeline where the campus ended and the forest started. She just had to get them away from Billy until he could finish what he was doing. They weren’t putties, they were just  _ people,  _ more likely than not brainwashed by Zedd. As she ran she called her armor — more for disguise than defense — and turned at the fence to face them fully. They didn’t stop, just ran right at her, and she ducked around and through the group. Playing keep-away, tripping them up and having them stumble over each other. As she did, she got a better look at the vests and the medallions in the center. They were familiar, she just couldn’t concentrate on it long enough to pull the memory into focus.

She looked up from the medallion she was studying, ready to slip away from the person wearing it — and saw her father’s face staring down at her.

She faltered and stumbled, and the four fell on her like wolves, trying to find a pocket in the armor that might hold the “control device”. She couldn’t strike back, not without hurting the innocent people — her own fucking _father_ — and they seemed tireless, moving with unceasing purpose and stamina. And their strikes were starting to _hurt_. Being a Power Ranger meant she was tougher than the average bear, but she was still human and four grown men beating on her was starting to wear down her pain tolerance. Plus her nose still _really_ hurt.

“ Hey!” That was Billy’s voice, and the attack paused long enough for Sam to peer out from between them. Billy was armored up, a blue carapace sheen in the moonlight, and he was making a “bring it on” gesture at the group. “Come on, two on one!”

“ Don’t hurt them,” Sam gasped into her helmet as two of the men did in fact peel away to go after Billy. “They’re just brainwashed.” A pause. “And one of them’s my  _ dad _ .”

Billy dodged a haymaker swing as Sam got to her feet. “Wait, really? Are you sure?”

“ He was six inches from my face, Billy. I’m sure.” She grabbed the arm of one of her assailants and tried to pin him, only to have the other hit her in the back of the neck. “Is the teleporter up?”

“ Yeah, it’s up. Alpha just has to calibrate it on his end, and we should have backup.”

“ Tell him to hurry.”

“ I’m  _ hurrying _ .” That was Alpha in her helmet comm, sounding harried.

Sam ducked another swing from her father, trying to land a pulled punch to his solar plexus that would at least make him  _ sit down  _ for a second. But he pulled back, and Sam’s fist clipped the medallion pinning his vest in the front.

He paused, straightening up for a second, a puzzled look on his face. Saw Sam, and his eyes went wide and round.

But then the scowl settled back in like a hood being pulled over his face, and he lunged at her.

“ Sam! Billy!” Jason’s voice in her helmet, and she saw a prismatic glint in the distance as the other Rangers emerged from the copse of trees.

“ They’re brainwashed!” she called to them. “Something to do with the medallions!”

“ Like Zedd’s putties?” That was Trini, and the memory Sam had been trying to recall flashed to the front of her mind.

“ Yeah!” She dodged another swing as Jason ran over and put the other one attacking her in a full nelson. “But will breaking them hurt these guys?”

“ Breaking Amanda’s necklace didn’t hurt her,” Kimberly reminded her, and Sam remembered that, too; the brainwashed blonde collapsing on top of her as she smashed the ugly pendant Zedd had been using to control her and her friends.

“ Alright,” Sam said, taking a deep breath and grabbing her dad by the arm as he swung at her again. “Sorry, Dad,” she muttered under her breath. “Kim, come take this thing off him.”

“ That’s your  _ dad _ ?” Zack asked from where he had one of Billy’s attackers pinned on the ground with a knee on his back.

“ Yeah.” Sam confirmed it through her teeth.

“ And this one’s mine,” Jason said, and it sounded like he was also clenching his jaw as he tried to keep the man — his father — in the hold.

“ Jesus Christ,” Zack muttered.

Kim approached, carefully wrapping her fingers around the circular ornament on Sam’s dad’s vest.

“ Sorry,” she murmured, and pulled it away.

It took more strength than they’d expected, but as soon as it lost contact with his body Sam’s dad slumped in her grip, the vest disappearing into a cloud of dust.

“ Fuck,” she hissed, and lowered him to the ground as gently as she could.

“ Get the others,” Jason said, and with each device removed the wearer slumped and went limp.

“ What do we do now?” Zack asked, looking at the collection of unconscious fishermen on the ground.

“ I’m taking my dad home,” Sam and Jason said at the same time, glancing at each other.

“ Shouldn’t they go to the hospital?” Trini asked, and Sam shook her head.

“I don’t know what this _does_ to a person,” she told them. “I want him where I can...I don’t know, sit on him if I have to.”

“ We can take the others to the hospital,” Jason said. “They’ll probably get put n psychiatric care, unfortunately, but at least they’ve got single rooms with sturdy walls.”

Kimberly knelt next to Sam, taking her free hand and squeezing it tightly. Sam looked at her, smiling behind her visor, and leaned in to knock their helmets together.

“ I’ll be fine,” she said, the sound conducting between their helmets and keeping their conversation private. “Go help them.”

“ If you’re sure.” Kim’s voice was uncertain, but Sam just squeezed her hand again.

“He’s _my_ dad,” she said, adding a moment later, “I’ll lock him in the bathroom if I have to.”

Kim gave a short, surprised giggle and laid her other hand on Sam’s shoulder before standing to pick up one of the passed-out fishermen in a fireman’s carry. She and the others raced off towards the hospital, and Sam lifted her dad off the ground with a small groan. Jason did the same with his father, taking off towards town.

“ If you’re the one who punched me in the nose we’re gonna have  _ words _ ,” she muttered to her unconscious father, not meaning it in the slightest, and turned towards home.


	2. Chapter 2

Thankfully it was still the wee hours when Sam reached her neighborhood, and she was able to get her dad in the back door without too much fear of being seen. She eased him onto the sofa, checking for any serious wounds as she wrestled with his heavy boots. He still smelled like a fishing boat, and she wrinkled her nose as she checked his forehead. It was warm, but she couldn’t tell if it was a fever or the exertion of chasing her and Billy around the school grounds.

“ I can’t make you take anything right now anyway,” she muttered, opting instead to wrap an ice pack in a dish cloth and tuck it behind his neck. It’d lower his temperature either way.

Having gotten him as settled as she was able, she collapsed into the big armchair, throwing her legs over the arm and toeing her shoes off. Her mind was spinning, had been since the group had split up. Things had been quiet for so long. Maybe they just got complacent, trusted in the shield covering the city.

_ But not the  _ whole  _ city _ , a voice in the back of her mind reminded her, and she grimaced. It was entirely possible the brainwashed men had been taken while on their boats; the shield didn’t extend very far over the waters off Angel Grove’s coast.

And she knew _why_ her dad. Zedd knew her. She’d _hurt_ him. No armor, no weapon. Just kicked him right in the chest and made an opening for Kimberly to shoot him in the face.

The thought made her smile sleepily. Even before they’d confessed their feelings to each other, Kim had her back. They were teammates, of course, but in hindsight it felt like she’d always been a little more attentive to Sam.

“ I’m probably biased,” she murmured out loud, smiling at her own sappiness. It hadn’t even been that long. Maybe a month? They’d only had one other date besides that very first shopping trip, and whether or not that “counted” was still a subject of some debate.

Her phone buzzed, startling her out of her half-asleep thoughts, and she blinked blearily at the text alert on the screen.

_ Can I come in?<< _

It was Kim, and peering out the window, Sam could see her pink leather jacket standing out in the light blue shadows the moon cast.

She stood with a small sigh of discomfort as her legs protested being used again so soon, and opened the door.

“ Dad’s on the sofa,” she said, gesturing with her chin.

“ I just wanted to check on him.” Kim kept her voice low as she stepped inside. “And you.”

“ I’m fine,” Sam said, somewhat wearily. “Just tired. And worried.”

“ Weird definition of ‘fine’ you’ve got there.” Kim’s smile was gentle, and Sam breathed out in a long sigh.

“ Yeah, probably.” She leaned on the back of the sofa, looking down at her dad. “How’s Jason?”

“ He made it home,” Kim said. “Trini took those medallion things to Alpha. We got the other two to the hospital — Zack and Billy carried them in, said they found him passed out behind a building or something.”

“ Here’s hoping they wake up alright,” Sam said, glancing away from her dad. She knew what she actually meant, and so did Kimberly.

“ Come here,” she said, settling into the armchair Sam had recently vacated. Sam walked over to her and Kim took her hand, tugging on it until Sam settled on the floor in front of her. She realized what Kim was up to then, and sat with her back against Kim’s knees.

Kimberly pulled her ponytail out of its tie, apologizing quietly when Sam made a small noise of pain, and started combing her fingers through Sam’s hair. Sam was growing it out in earnest now, having preferred long hair even before Rita’s curse changed her. Now it was just easier to wear, and she got much less shit from her dad for it. Her dad had been improving in a lot of ways since she’d told him everything that had happened — being a Power Ranger, being a girl, everything — and Sam found herself suddenly swallowing against a lump in her throat.

She laid her head against Kimberly’s knee, making her fingers still in surprise before they went back to quietly detangling Sam’s hair with sure, gentle motions.

_ Please let him be alright _ . It wasn’t quite a prayer. A plea to the universe in general, maybe, though she didn’t know how she felt about that either, these days.  _ He was targeted and it was my fault. Please let him be alright _ .

Kim had moved on to just running her fingers through Sam’s hair now, a comforting rhythm, and neither of them noticed Sam’s dad shift slightly on the sofa, eyes opening briefly before he just closed them again with a small smile.  


* * *

“ This was a bad idea,” Sam muttered, trying to hide behind her locker door.

“ It is  _ not _ ,” Kim said firmly, trying to pull the door away from Sam without accidentally denting it with their combined enhanced strength.

“ There’s so much else going on —“

“ Your dad woke up, right? And he’s fine?”

“ He kept giving me these weird smiles this morning, but otherwise yeah, he’s good.”

“ And we can’t do anything about the other stuff until we get back to the base, right?”

“ Right.”

“Then there’s nothing that should prevent this.” Kim finally got the locker door away from Sam and shut it firmly. What she’d been concealing was finally revealed — the fact that for the first time since her transformation, Sam was wearing a skirt. A simple, soft green peasant skirt that fell to the tops of her shoes. Sam had chosen it for the color and the way it swooshed around her legs (which Kim had assured her was a perfectly valid reason to choose a skirt). It was still the first time she’d openly worn something that presented her as so definitively _female,_ and she’d been plagued by anxiety over it since she’d promised Kimberly she’d wear it to school. The promise was less for Kimberly and more to prevent the anxiety from talking her out of it, but she was starting to wish she’d let it. She was sure everyone was looking at her and coming up with new and exciting ways to mock her for it. She hunched over as she shifted her backpack higher on one shoulder.

“ This was stupid,” she muttered.

“ It absolutely is  _ not _ ,” Kimberly said, taking Sam’s arm in hers. “Now come look cute with me.”

Sam’s face flushed, and Kim grinned at her as they walked. It was harder to hunch with their arms linked together, and the skirt swished pleasantly around her ankles as they headed for the back of the school.

They rounded a corner, stopping short as they almost ran into a pair of bodies leaning against the lockers there. Specifically, Amanda being hovered over by her boyfriend Brycen. Sam only knew Brycen by reputation, from having had adjoining gym lockers before and some vague grumblings from Jason on occasion. Amanda, on the other hand, she was very familiar with, both from Kimberly’s history with her and the fact that she’d beaten the other girl to a pulp behind an arcade not too long ago. She’d been brainwashed by Zedd at the time, but further interactions had proven she was perfectly nasty all on her own.

She looked Sam up and down, a sneer on her face, and Sam curled inward on herself instinctively. She was self-conscious about the skirt, and the way her hair fell around her shoulders instead of being pulled back, and it was like she could feel Amanda honing in on those insecurities.

“ Trying to make a silk purse?” she said, leaning against the lockers with one shoulder and crossing her arms. “Or just engaging in a little recreational cross-dressing?”

Sam’s face flushed. Most people hadn’t noticed her change. Brycen must have realized when she stopped showing up in the locker room and put two and two together. She might also have been giving the lunkhead more credit than he deserved, but the smirk on his face at least proved he understood his girlfriend’s cruel reference.

“ Amanda, so help me God...” Kimberly’s arm slid out from around Sam’s as she took a half-step forward. Amanda made a tutting noise.

“ Fighting in the hallways, Kimberly? After everything else you’ve done?” Another “tsk” from the blonde girl. “You’re still in detention until pretty much the end of the world, right? Wouldn’t want to  _ escalate  _ things.”

“ Maybe you’re right,” Kimberly conceded, cocking her head to one side. “Or maybe you just don’t feel like getting turned into a floor mop today.”

Sam could hear her heartbeat in her ears as she tried to control her own temper. She hated it even as she thought it, but Amanda _was_ right. Kimberly couldn’t afford any more disciplinary marks.

“ Come on,” she said, reaching out for Kimberly’s arm again. “Don’t waste your time.”

Amanda waved a dismissive hand at them. “Yeah, you’ve got more _important_ things to deal with.” There was something in her voice, something dark and _knowing_ that Sam zeroed in on, frowning as she pulled Kimberly back to her side.

Sam’s temper faded into exasperation. Attacks against Kim made her angry. Attacks against herself just made her tired. She could feel the opposite reaction in Kim as her arm went rigid under Sam’s fingers.

“Look, either I’m a dude or she’s a lesbian,” she said tiredly. “You can’t have it both ways.” Brycen frowned in the background as he tried to do _that_ math. “Besides, jealousy’s not a good look on you.”

“Jealousy?” Anger flashed in Amanda’s eyes as she straightened. “What the _fuck_ do I have to be jealous from a drag queen and a d—“

“ Pride,” Sam said, cutting her off. She knew what word had been about to leave the other girl’s mouth, and she was already tired of hearing her say it. “We can take pride in what we have. Y’all are just a prom night setup, and you know it.”

Sam took advantage of Amanda’s spluttering anger to pull Kimberly away, out the doors at the end of the hallway and into the parking lot. She was shaking now, adrenaline and anger draining away and leaving exhaustion and fear in their wake.

She couldn’t quite make it to the stand of trees where the teleporter was hidden, instead collapsing behind one of the teacher’s cars and pressing her face into her knees.

“ This was a mistake,” she mumbled into the fabric.

“ Shut up,” Kim said from where she’d knelt beside her. “Amanda’s a harpy; she would have found something to pick at regardless of what you were wearing. It was just bad timing, was all.” She laid a hand on Sam’s arm, then pulled it away hesitantly. “Unless...unless you meant...”

Sam’s head shot up as she realized what Kimberly meant. “No! No, god no. This is good.” She caught Kim’s hand and threaded their fingers together. “This is perfect. I’m just...” She grimaced, picking at the fabric of the skirt. “I’ll get better at this,” she muttered.

“You’ll be _amazing_ at this,” Kim told her, resting her forehead against Sam’s temple and making her smile.

“ Come on, the others are gonna wonder where we are.”


	3. Chapter 3

Teleporting to the alien ship that served as the Power Ranger’s base was, in Sam’s opinion, vastly preferable to having to swim through the lake at the bottom of the gorge. Alpha had rigged up a barrier that pulled the water from their clothes when they emerged, or they could armor up, but it was still an annoying experience and Sam was just as glad to not have to do it in a skirt.

“ You look cute,” Trini yelled from the corner as Sam and Kimberly entered the big central chamber. Sam flushed again, muttering an embarrassed “Thanks”.

“ It looks nice,” Billy said, smiling brightly. Sam returned it, feeling the first prickling of tears at the corners of her eyes. She busied herself with putting her bag on the floor until it passed, finding Jason standing next to her when she stood up again.

“ I heard about Brycen,” he muttered. “I could take care of —“

“ No,” Sam interrupted. “You’re still on probation, right?” When Jason nodded, she shook her head firmly. “No. Jackasses like that didn’t bother me before; I’m not about to let them start now.”

“ Okay.” It was quiet, and threaded with an undercurrent of frustration that didn’t seem to be about that afternoon, or at least not entirely.

“ How’s your dad?” Sam gently changed the subject and was glad when some of the tension drained out of his shoulders.

“ He woke up a little last night. Said he had a headache and some weird dreams, but he’s not violent or anything. The other guys were apparently from his crew; he’s gonna check on them in the hospital. Hopefully neither of them remembers anything either.”

“ Hopefully. I didn’t armor up until I got them away from Billy.”

“ What about you? How’s your dad?”

Sam shrugged. “He seemed fine this morning, but that was the last time I saw him.”

“ Do you wanna go?” Jason asked. “We can fill you in later.”

“ No,” Sam said, letting her breath out in a long sigh. “I’m...I’m not entirely sure that this isn’t my fault.” She met Jason’s eyes for a bare moment before looking away. “I hurt him,” she said, cutting off his rebuttal before he could get it out. “I made it personal.”

“Kimberly _shot_ him,” Jason reminded her.

“Well, yeah.” Sam had a very vivid memory of the arrow sticking out of Zedd’s throat, right before she’d kicked him square in the chest. “But I...” Her face twisted as she tried to put words to the complicated emotion she’d had swirling around in her head since that day. “He made Rita,” she said finally. “And Rita made _me_.” She held up a hand as Jason practically swelled in indignation on her behalf. “I know, I _know._ Let me finish.” She waited to see if he’d yell anyway, but he didn’t and she continued.

“ I think he feels entitled to what I have.” She gestured at the center console that stored her gleaming silver jade-and-silver dagger with a flute carved into the handle. “The dagger. The Dragonzord.” She touched her waist, where the translucent green stone rested in a hidden pocket of her leggings. “My power.”

She shook her head. “And I  _ denied  _ him that. Right to his big metal face.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel…responsible. He sent Amanda and her goons after me specifically. I’m pretty sure he targeted my dad, and...and I don’t know if he targeted yours, too, or if he just got caught in the back-splash. Sorry.” The last was nearly a whisper, and Jason laid a hand on her upper arm.

“ Either way,” he said firmly. “We’ve got your back. You know that, right?”

“ Of course,” she said. And she did. It had been a weird and scary ride since she’d picked up the stone in the clearing, and it didn’t show any signs of letting up any time soon. But she wasn’t doing it alone. It felt nice. Weird, sometimes. But nice.

Alpha shuffled into the room then, and the group broke from their individual conversations to focus on him.

“ It’s definitely Zedd,” he said grimly, going to the center console. “But you knew that.”

“ It’s like Amanda,” Kimberly said. “That necklace.”

“ Yes.” Alpha brought up a holographic diagram, macro versions of particles found in both the medallions and the necklace they’d brought Alpha after they’d been attacked at the arcade. They were a perfect match.

“ Zedd can’t break through the shield,” Alpha said. “At least, not yet. So he’s finding humans and...enhancing them, under his will, to do his dirty work for him.”

“ Regular people.” Jason’s voice was hot with barely-controlled anger. “Our  _ families _ .”

“ We don’t know that that was intentional,” Alpha said, but his optic swiveled around to look at Sam, who stiffened at the attention. “But yes. Civilians.”

“ That’s sick,” Trini said flatly.

“ It is normal behavior for Lord Zedd,” Zordon said. “If he discovers the location of the Zeo Crystal, he can simply dominate a human’s mind and have it brought directly to him.”

“ It’s right in the middle of town,” Zack reminded him. “Just sitting there in a big crater.”

“ Under the shield,” Alpha said. “It’s likely his sense of it is...muddled.”

“ We can’t guard it 24/7,” Sam said. “My dad knows why I’m running around at all hours, but you guys...”

“ And we’re not gonna make you sit out there by yourself,” Jason said, letting out a long sigh. “There’s no way to know who he’ll go after.”

“ Constant vigilance,” Sam agreed darkly. She leaned against a nearby counter, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. “For who knows how long.”

“ We have to take the fight to him,” Jason said with sudden heat. “We can’t let him step all over Angel Grove.”

“ Or get the Zeo Crystal,” Billy said.

“ That is...exceedingly unwise,” Zordon said, voice echoing through the room.

“ What are we supposed to do?!” Jason flung his arms out, narrowly avoiding smacking Sam in the face.

“ Even if it wasn’t suicidal,” Alpha said, raising a hand towards Jason and Zordon both, trying to stop the argument before it started. “We don’t know where he is. He was hiding behind the moon before, but we can’t find any trace of him at all now.”

“ Can you track the material?” Billy asked. “Like you did with the Dragonzord?” Sam perked up at that suggestion, looking between Billy and Alpha as the latter made a humming noise.

“It’s not _not_ an option,” he finally admitted. “If they’re even in range.”

“ They’ve gotta be, if they’re going after people in town,” Zack pointed out.

“ Fair point,” Alpha responded. There was an annoyed current in his voice as he pulled up a new screen. “I’ll start taking samples from the medallions. You guys,” and he jabbed a finger in their general direction without looking. “Find excuses to hang out near the Zeo Crystal. Try to divert anyone acting strange.”

“ Or wearing weird 90s boy-band silver vests,” Sam added, getting a surprised snort out of Jason.  


* * *

Sam reluctantly declined shopping with Kimberly, as she really wanted to go home and check on her father. He’d been awake that morning and insisted he didn’t need looking after, but she was nervous about what might have happened during the day.

So maybe she entered the kitchen with a little more urgency than was absolutely necessary, making her dad look up in mild alarm.

“ Where’s the fire?” he asked as she shed her backpack.

“ _You’re_ the fire,” she responded. “How’re you feeling?”

“ I feel  _ fine _ , Sam.” He turned back to the stove. Whatever he was cooking smelled amazing, and Sam had to pull her focus back to the task at hand.

“ You’re sure? No weird impulses? Intrusive thoughts? Violent tendencies?” She couldn’t help it; she navigated over to his elbow to peer onto the stove. It was pork chops, and they smelled even better up close.

“ Only towards you if you don’t leave me alone.” He nudged her with an elbow.

She retreated, sitting at the kitchen table. “What do you remember?” she asked after a long moment.

He paused for a moment before answering. “I saw you put on your...suit? Uniform? I saw you turn green,” he said finally. “I remember a blue one, too. Someone putting me in a headlock.” He looked over his shoulder at her, and she put her hands up in a “not me” gesture. “That’s about it.”

“ Do you remember when it happened?”

He shrugged. “I was on the dock and then I wasn’t,” he said simply. “There were others with me,” he added. “What happened to them?”

“ Hospital,” she said. She didn’t know if he knew who Jason’s dad was, and didn’t want to potentially out him to her dad.

“ So I’m  _ special _ .” It was said with a teasing tone, but Sam winced anyway.

“ I was worried about you,” she said quietly.

“ I know, kid.” He turned around, crossing the kitchen to dig in a cabinet for something. “It was a bad joke.”

“ I’m just glad you’re alright.” She folded her arms on the table and laid her head on top of them. “I...I know how it feels. It can mess with you.”

“ It didn’t,” he assured her, pulling down a large pot as well.

“ Good.” It was muffled by her arms and the table, and she just stayed sitting that way for a long moment, listening to the sounds of cooking in the background.

“ How’s your girlfriend?”

Sam sat up so fast she felt something in her spine pop.

“ _ What _ ?”

“ Sorry.” He sounded more amused than sorry. “Couldn’t help it. I woke up a little last night,” he said, more gently. Sam’s mouth dropped open, and she snapped it shut immediately. “I know girls are more...affectionate with each other than guys, but it seemed...”

Sam laid her head back on her arms, this time because her face was burning. “Yeah,” she said into the tablecloth. “Yeah, we’re...yeah.” There was really no point in denying it, if he’d seen her with her head in Kim’s lap.

“ So it’s a thing?”

“ Yeah.” Sam peeked up over her arms. Her dad’s back was still to her as he stirred whatever was on the stove.

“ Does she...know?” He made a vague gesture with one hand.

“ ...something like that.”

“ That’s gonna cause friction,” he warned. She smiled privately. She wasn’t going to out Kim, either, but she appreciated his concern.

“ I’ll deal with it when it happens.”

“ ...alright.” His voice suggested he was holding back further advice. “So, uh. I know it can be rough, finding...safe places to be open,” he said. “You guys can come here if you need to.”

Sam sat up, a warmth of gratitude and affection growing in her chest. “Thanks, dad. That...means a lot. Really.”

“ Just put a sock on the doorknob if you need me to stay out,” he said.

Sam’s flush deepened. “Dad.”

“ At least I don’t have to worry about you getting knocked up.”

“ _ Dad. _ ”

“Or knocking _her_ up, for that matter.”

Sam fled the room to her dad’s affectionate laughter.

“I appreciate the support,” she muttered into her comforter after she’d fallen face-first on the bed. “He could be less of a _dad_ about it.”


	4. Chapter 4

They took turns loitering near the crater containing the Zeo Crystal, which was a trick considering it was still surrounded by construction equipment. The Starbucks was a decent vantage point, but they could only stay there for so long before they ran out of latte money. The _roof_ of the Starbucks also worked, but required a lot of ducking back and forth to stay out of sight.

So when it was Sam’s turn, Kimberly insisted on joining her, and they squirmed through the narrow sidewalk passage to the little cafe across from the crater.They could just see the site from there, and it had the bonus effect of being an excellent place for their third-ever date.

“ This feels like cheating,” Sam told her when their waitress had walked away with their orders.

“ How so?”

“ I’m supposed to be  _ working _ .” She said it with a teasing tone, smiling at Kimberly. “Yet here I am, in a cozy little cafe getting egg cups and — what did you order?”

“ Coffee cake.”

“ _ Coffee cake _ . It’s cheating,” she said with finality, leaning back in her chair, and dutifully glancing out the window at the construction site.

Kimberly grinned at her, tongue poking out a little. “Maybe I’m not here for the date,” she said teasingly. “Maybe I just really wanted some coffee cake.”

“ Maybe I’ll  _ eat  _ your coffee cake.”

“ You gotta fight me for it.”

Sam stretched her leg out and hooked the toe of one shoe around the back of Kimberly’s ankle, lifting her foot slightly off the ground.

“ Aha,” she said, deadpan. “I’ve destabilized your position. You fall down, I win.”

Kim took her other foot and lifted it until she could tap Sam’s knee with it. “I have two feet, Sam.”

Sam lifted her free leg and tapped the inside of Kim’s knee. “As do I. Checkmate.”

They sat there for a moment, giggling at each other, until the waitress returned with their drinks. Sam slid her foot down along the inside of Kim’s leg, and left their feet resting against each other as they ate.

“That was _not_ enough food,” Sam complained as they exited the cafe. “Especially considering what we paid for it.”

“ It’s a little bullshit brunch place,” Kim reminded her. “Not a steakhouse.”

“ Next date is a steakhouse,” Sam declared, and Kim giggled.

“ So where do we hide next?” she asked. Sam looked suddenly sheepish.

“ I was actually kind of planning on sneaking home and checking on my dad,” she admitted.

“ You said he was acting fine.” Kim frowned. Sam pulled a face and gestured fruitlessly, trying to put words to her unease.

“ I acted fine, too,” she said finally, and Kim made a noise of understanding.

“ You think he might have a stowaway.”

“ Yeah,” Sam said quietly. “I don’t know how Zedd’s brainwashing works, but he trained Rita, so...” Sam shrugged. “I’m worried.”

“ You’re allowed to be worried.” Kim hooked her arm around Sam’s. “Come on, I’ll go with you.”

They made their way back through the town towards the neighborhood, Kimberly eventually sliding her hand down to catch Sam’s as they walked. Sam smiled as she swung their arms a little, looking over to see Kim doing the exact same thing. Their smiles grew in tandem, right before Kim was tackled to the ground by a black blur.

“ Kim!” Sam had a split second to whirl around before a weight slammed into her midsection, taking her to the ground and knocking the wind out of her. Grey bloomed around the edges of her vision as she struggled with whoever or whatever was on top of her, but the lack of oxygen kept her from being very effective. She heard a loud grunt and a sound of impact; Kimberly had gotten her knees up and sent the person on top of her flying. She managed to reach over and snag the sleeve of the figure on top of Sam — a person, she realized, a ski mask concealing their identity and making them look upsettingly like a putty soldier.

A third assailant tackled Kimberly back to the ground, making her wild grab little more than a distraction. Sam finally got her breath back, taking the opportunity to roll her attacker onto their back and reach for their mask. They got an arm free, however, and grabbed Sam’s wrist with a strength that  _ hurt _ , bending up and backwards and making her grab their other arm in an attempt to stop them from breaking her hand. The torque was already too much, however, and there was a loud popping sound as Sam’s thumb was forced out of the socket. Pain screamed up her arm and she jerked away, giving them ample room to roll their hips and knock Sam back onto the pavement.

She heard sounds of fighting to one side; Kimberly was still dealing with her half of the fight. She couldn’t look over, not with her own opponent bearing down on her. She flipped up onto her feet, spinning away as they lunged for her. She’d assumed they were human, since they weren’t obviously otherworldly, but the way her hand dangled uselessly at the end of her arm very much suggested otherwise. But she couldn’t call her armor. Chances were good they knew exactly who she was, but she couldn’t risk it. Not this close to home.  _ I can still hit real hard, though. _

She drew back her good fist, fully intending to clock the approaching figure in the jaw. But a sharp, sudden impact on the back of her head sent overwhelming pain washing over her, and she fell into darkness.  


* * *

Something was cold beneath her. Her head and wrist throbbed horribly. Her first thought was that she was back in the medical bay of the crashed alien ship that served as the Power Ranger’s base, but when she tried to hold her aching head, she couldn’t. Her wrists were bound to the table. Her eyes flew open, as much from surprise as the jolt of pain that the restraint sent through her still-healing hand, and the memory of the attack flooded through her.

She looked around, grateful that her head wasn’t also bound, and saw Kim on a nearby table. Her face was still slack, and she had a huge black-and-purple bruise over one eye. She was breathing, though, and Sam felt a tightness in her chest ease.

“ Kim,” she hissed, trying to wake her up without potentially drawing someone else’s attention. “Kimberly. Kim, wake  _ up _ .”

Kim didn’t stir. Sam dropped her head back to the table, wincing as she hit what felt like a goose egg on the back of her head.

_ There’s no one here _ , she thought, staring up at the ceiling. Darkness took over about five feet above her head, but that was actually kind of a relief to her strained eyes.  _ No one would see me call my armor. It would protect my hand and let me contact Alpha. Or at least let me break out of here. Maybe. _

With another furtive glance around the darkened room, she reached for that place in her center that held her connection to the morphing grid...and found it empty.

Her eyes flew open, her breath catching. Panic clawed at her throat. That was it. That was all she had, and it was  _ gone _ . Her last option, taken from her.

“Kim,” she called over, no longer caring if anyone heard. “ _Kim._ Wake up. Wake _up_.”

Kim stirred, scrunching her eyes tightly in pain, then groaning as that stretched the skin over the impressive bruise on her forehead.

“ Ow.”

“ Kim, I can’t morph.”

Kimberly’s eyes flew open then, and Sam watched her hands flex a few times as she clearly tried to call her own armor.

“ What the fuck,” she whispered. She yanked at her arms a few times, discovering them to be restrained as Sam’s were. “What the  _ fuck _ . Where are we?”

“ I don’t know.” Sam tried to slow her breathing. Hyperventilation would help nothing.

“ Sam.” Her name was a gasp, and she looked up to see Kim straining her neck as far up as she could. “Look. At my feet.”

Sam’s eyes followed the line of the table and past the end of it, where the dim light gleamed off of a third metal table. And, ever so faintly, a pair of translucent crystals. One pink, one green.

“ That’s why we can’t morph,” Sam realized. “We gotta get them back so we can get out of here.”

“ How? We’re both strapped down.” Kim snatched fruitlessly at her manacles, kicking her feet against the bands that pinned her ankles to the table as well.

“ I have an idea,” Sam said grimly. “But I’m gonna hate it.”

“ What?”

“ American Ninja Warrior back there dislocated my thumb. Hasn’t healed yet.”

“ ...oh, god.”

“ Yeah.” Sam laid back on the table, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Carefully, she slid her hand upwards, making a groan of pain as the metal caught on, then slid past the disfigured joint. Her hand was free, but was absolutely  _ screaming  _ with pain, and she rested it on her chest for a moment as she tried to get her breath back.

“ You alright?” Kim asked, and Sam could hear the wince in her voice.

“ Yeah,” Sam lied. “I got it. I got this.” She reached over, grabbing her thumb with the fingers of her still-trapped hand and, after a couple of deep breaths, pulling  _ hard _ . The groan of pain she made almost covered the sound of her thumb popping back into joint, and she took a few more deep breaths before she wrapped her hand around the metal band and squeezed as hard as she could.

It almost didn’t work. The metal resisted the pressure she put on it, and she had to twist it back and forth a little to get it to give way. But it eventually did, and the bands around her feet were much easier to break loose with the use of both hands. She did the same for Kimberly, and they spared a moment for a brief, tight hug before she slid off of the table.

“ You’re alright?” Sam asked as they snatched their morphing crystals off the table. Sam’s warmed to her touch, and she squeezed it in her hand for a moment before sliding it into her pocket.

“ Yeah.” Kim seemed to have done something similar. “Let’s get out of here.”

Sam reached out to the morphing grid again, terrified for a brief moment that it wouldn’t respond. But her armor slid over her skin, and she sighed in relief as the pain in her head and hand faded to a dull ache.

“ Jesus,” Kimberly muttered, and when Sam turned to her she simply pointed into the darkness of the room.

Sam looked where she was pointing, and quietly echoed her reaction. With the armor enhancing their dark vision, they could see into the shadowed areas of the room. All along the walls and ceiling were various pieces of medical equipment. At least, that’s what they  _ thought  _ it was; it looked like MRI machines and blood pressure machines, but they were mixed in with what resembled the equipment in the base’s medical bay.

“ What the fuck,” Sam whispered, wincing a second later as an explosion of static sounded in her ear.

“ Sam!” That was Alpha’s voice, sounding frantic and relieved all at once. “Kimberly!”

Even at the excessive volume, Sam had never been so glad to hear the robot’s voice. “Oh thank god,” she heard Kimberly sigh.

“ Where  _ are  _ you?” Sam could hear the frantic beeping of several machines in the background.

“ That’s an excellent question,” she replied. “We got knocked out and woke up here.”

“ We couldn’t find you on the morphing grid.” More worry in his voice.

“ They took our crystals off of us,” Kim said.

“ Oh.” The single word still contained an impressive level of horror. “Well, you obviously found them,” he said a moment later, still sounding shaken. “Now try to find an exit. I can track you now; I’ll send the others as soon as I have a location.”

“ Keep someone on the Crystal,” Kim said suddenly. “There’s a chance this is a big diversion.”

“ Got it,” Alpha replied. “Alright, get going!”

Sam and Kimberly scanned the room, found a gap in the far wall, and moved carefully out of the room and into a long corridor.

“ I hate it,” Kimberly muttered under her breath. It was becoming a mantra, repeated more with each room they passed. “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.”

“ It’s Zedd, right?” Sam snagged her elbow to make her turn down a corridor. “Gotta be.”

“ More brainwashed humans,” Kimberly added darkly.

“ There’s gotta be something we can do about that,” Sam said. “Some kind of — of jamming signal, or — fuck!” The two of them skidded to a halt as grey-skinned putty soldiers boiled out of a room ahead of them.

They careened around another corner, Kimberly shouting when they saw daylight ahead of them. Sam’s thoughts were churning; the Z-putties were stronger, less vulnerable, _except_ for the circular portion in the middle of their chest that bore Zedd’s mark. The same had been true for the fishermen that attacked her and Billy. Zedd had a way of super-powering his minions, never mind if they were connected to the morphing grid or not. _Unless he’s connecting them_ to _the grid somehow...if the medallions are_ —

Her train of thought came to a screeching halt as something snagged her ankle and she went down, landing hard on one elbow. Her not-yet-healed wrist screamed at the impact, and she scrabbled at the floor as she tried to stand without putting too much weight on it.

But whatever had her foot wasn’t letting go, and she was yanked backwards again. This time she landed square on her chin, the shock absorption of the helmet not doing enough to stop her from biting her tongue.

Flipping onto her back, she saw a putty with its hands wrapped around her ankle, featureless face somehow still projecting a snarl as it yanked on her again. She drew back her other foot and slammed it into the center of the creature’s chest, scattering it into dust. She rolled back over, but there was one in front of her now, and she recoiled as Kimberly snatched it away from her.

The hallway seemed full of them now, making it almost claustrophobic as the grey bodies pressed in all around them. The need for precision to destroy them meant they were quickly outnumbered and overpowered, trying to just break a path through the mass so they could get away.

“ Found us yet?” Sam yelled over the comm.

“ Almost!” Alpha sounded frantic. “They’re headed in your general direction, anyway!”

“ Sooner would be better.” Kim’s voice was a low growl compared to Sam’s shouting. She managed to land a fatal hit on the putty in front of her, and daylight broke through again. “Come on!”

She grabbed Sam’s hand, yanking her out of the scrum and towards the light, and Sam was too grateful for the escape to even care that Kim was yanking on her injured arm.

Then the putties fell from the  _ ceiling _ , in front of and behind and on top of them, and they collapsed under the weight. Instinctively, they curled into and around each other, hands clasped together.

“ Kim,” Sam gasped.

“ I know.” Kim’s hand squeezed hers tightly.

_This isn’t it,_ Sam thought desperately, retreating into herself, away from the repeated impacts against her armor. _It’s not over._

_ Is it? _

“ _ Cannonball! _ ”

Suddenly there was light. Air and light above them, a pair of arms lifting Sam off her back, sounds of fighting in the background.

“ Come on,” Jason said. Looking over her shoulder, Sam saw Zack swinging his one-handed war axe into the chest of one putty soldier only to snatch it out of the falling dust and into another target with fluid ease. Trini was beside him with her twin sai daggers, and through the ringing in her ears Sam heard her berating him; something about diving head-first into a pile of enemies. Zack wasn’t really responding, more of a manic cackling, which was really par for the course between the two.

“ You found us.” Kim’s voice was clear, and exhausted-sounding. Sam turned back around to see her leaning heavily against the wall, favoring her left leg. Checking that Sam could stand on her own, Jason went to swing one of Kimberly’s arms over his shoulders.

“ Alright, let’s get you two home.” His voice was soft, almost comforting. Sam was certainly glad to hear it. “Zack, Trini,” he said, louder this time. “Make sure they can’t keep up with us.”

Zack gave a wild sort of yell and redoubled his efforts, Trini keeping pace, and Sam and Kim let themselves be carried towards the light.  


* * *

_ Monitors. Rows and rows of monitors, hard-light screens showing dark, monochrome hallways. A pile of formless shapes on one; then three bright figures breaking up the mass and carrying away two limping forms. _

“ _I don’t understand.” The voice was high-pitched and borderline petulant. “We_ had _them, why did we let them go?”_

“ They are not what we needed. We needed the crystals, and we got them.”  _ The view swung around to reveal the source of the high-pitched voice, a young blonde girl in dark, shimmering armor from neck to toe. Pink overlaid with a crawling, dark web-like structure, and a similarly-styled helmet tucked under her arm.  _ “ It’s how I was able to give you all your new gifts.”  _ For there were five more besides the pink — red, blue, yellow, black, and green. All standing on the bridge of his ship, glistening promises of reprisal. _

“ _ We could have taken them,” the girl insisted. “We’re stronger than them. You said so.” _

“ I did. And you are.”  _ She stepped back as he rose.  _ “ But it means nothing to defeat two broken Rangers with six powerful ones. I want you fighting his full team, at their full power. ”  _ He clenched one fist.  _ “ I want Zordon to see his precious Rangers taken down together, at full strength. I want it to  _ hurt _ .”

“ _ When?” That was another of his new Rangers, his improved versions of Zordon’s weak children. _

“ When the time is right.”  _ He turned back to the monitors, the reflection of silver bouncing off of the console.  _ “ Soon. Very soon.”


	5. Chapter 5

Sam sat up slowly, groaning as her head throbbed.

“ Hey!” Kimberly caught her by the elbow before she could sit up too fast, scooting up onto the table she was laying on. The whole right side of her face was a yellowing bruise with a small bandage over her eyebrow. Her arms and what Sam could see of her collarbones were equally mottled with bruises in varying stages of healing, and there was an air cast on her right foot.

“ Jesus  _ fuck _ , Kim...”

“ Don’t start,” Kimberly said with a quick, strained smile. “You look a lot worse than I do.” She gently placed Sam’s left hand back on her lap, which is when Sam noticed it was also in a brace.

“ Oh, right.” She lifted it gingerly, testing the weight, and set it back down with a grimace.

“ You were muttering in your sleep,” Kim said.

“ You were watching me sleep?” It was said with a quick smile, but the mirth couldn’t quite overtake the tiredness in Sam’s voice.

“ I was making sure you were gonna  _ wake up _ .”

Sam lifted her good hand and laid it on Kim’s cheek. “Hey,” she said softly. A dozen platitudes came to mind, _it wasn’t that bad_ or _we would have made it out_ but they died on her lips. It really had felt _that_ bad. If the others hadn’t shown up when they did, the two of them probably wouldn’t have made it out. “I’m fine,” she finally said, but even that didn’t feel entirely true.

“ I was dreaming,” she said, taking her hand away from Kim’s face to rub at her eyes. “Amanda was there…?”

“ Gross,” Kim said flatly, sitting more fully on the table. “We’ve been in the medical bay for a few hours. Alpha can’t use the machines on us non-stop, or our bodies will forget how to heal themselves.”

“ Hence the bruises.”

“ And the braces.” Kim lifted her injured leg up with a wince. “Zordon wants us in the face room as soon as we can, though. Wants to interrogate us about what happened.”

“ Yeah, I bet,” Sam muttered. “Can I just lay back down and pretend I never woke up? He wouldn’t make a sleeping broken person get up and —“

The sentence and Sam’s entire train of thought was broken as Kimberly leaned in and kissed Sam.

She overshot just a little, and they both gave a small grunt of pain as their bruises collided, but then it was Kim’s mouth on hers, and her hands on Sam’s arms, and it was a long moment before Kim pulled back.

“ All I could think,” she whispered, resting her forehead against Sam’s. “We were under that pile of putties and all I could think was  _ we haven’t even kissed yet _ .” She pulled away, looking into Sam’s eyes with tears at the corners of her own. “That’s so  _ stupid,  _ I’m —“

It was Sam’s turn to interrupt her, another soft press of lips. “Consider that a rain check for when I’m not covered in gauze,” she said, and Kimberly stifled a giggle, laying a hand on her ribs. Sam covered it with her own hand, and they just rested against each other for a long moment.

The sound of someone clearing their throat had them yanking apart from each other, each of them wincing in regret at the sudden motion. Billy at least had the decency to look sheepish as he gestured at them from the doorway.

“ Zordon needs to talk to us.”  


* * *

They told Zordon everything that had happened to them, the others providing more details about the base they’d been kept in, and it’s location several dozen miles outside of Angel Grove.

“ It’s absolutely not somewhere we could get in a hurry,” Jason said darkly. “Not without the Zords, and that’s not exactly stealthy.”

“ We’ll figure something out,” Zordon said. “Kimberly, Sam. Go home and rest. We’ll call for you when we have news.”

Both of them opened their mouths to protest, immediately wincing and leaning heavily on each other.

“ Fine,” Sam said sullenly. “But if you beat him without me I’m starting a riot.”

Neither Alpha nor Zordon were known for their great expressiveness, but Sam still didn’t like the look on the big face as she and Kim headed for the teleporter.

She sat out of school the next couple of days, her dad citing a stomach flu. He wasn’t happy with the situation at all, least of all Sam’s refusal to explain what had happened. She just couldn’t bring herself to tell him enemies had been so near the house.

Kimberly visited at one point, curling up with Sam on the sofa. She’d had to resort to long sleeves and makeup to cover her bruises. Sam felt mingled relief and guilt at that; her dad knowing helped with so much, and the fact that Kimberly didn’t have that was upsetting to her.

But all she could do in the moment was offer somewhere for her to go, so they were together when the announcement boomed overhead, rattling the windows and the bookshelves.

_ I AM LORD ZEDD. _

“ Here we go,” Sam muttered, and tightened her arm around Kimberly.

_ I CHALLENGE THE POWER RANGERS. MEET ME IN COMBAT AND BE TESTED. WHEN YOU ARE FOUND WANTING, I WILL HAVE THE ZEO CRYSTAL. _

The booming stopped, and Sam’s phone started buzzing almost immediately.

She gave Kim a look as she retrieved it from the side table and answered the call.

“ Hi, Dad.”

“ You’re still hurt —“

“ I don’t have a choice, Dad.” Sam clenched her jaw. She didn’t want this to be a fight. “I’ve just got a few bruises left —“

“ I don’t...” He cut himself off with a short sigh. Sam could practically see him pushing his hair back with one hand. “Be safe,” he said simply. “I love you.”

“ Love you too, Dad. Talk to you later.” She ended the call and cut the phone off, looking over at Kimberly.

“ Well,” Kim said, reaching for Sam’s hand.

“ Well.” Sam took it, squeezing her fingers slightly. “Let’s go.”  


* * *

The group met in the command center, teleporting in from various anchors Billy had set over the week.

“ This is so much better,” Zack muttered as he entered the main room.

“ You thought you were gonna get atomized,” Sam reminded him.

“ Yeah, but I  _ wasn’t _ , and now I don’t have to scuba dive to get here.”

Alpha scuttled into the room and made a beeline for the center console, bringing up a map.

“ He sent us coordinates,” he told the others. “Which is...upsetting, that he can do that, but there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”

“ That’s near his base,” Jason said, and Sam could see his jaw working through the transparent map. “His own turf.”

“He said ‘meet _me_ in combat’,” Trini pointed out. “Are we gonna fight him? Like him-him, not a putty army or whoever that gold chick was last time?”

“ I think she got turned to dust,” Sam said. She had been on the Dragonzord’s shoulder with the woman, presumably Zedd’s lieutenant, when the altercation had taken place. “I’m not sure. A lot was going on.”

“ It would not be like Zedd to face you himself,” Zordon said, sounding contemplative. “He will likely send a champion of some kind in his place.”

“ Just one?” Billy asked.

“ It would...suit his ego.” There was a thread of disdain in Zordon’s voice now. “To defeat the Rangers in combat with only a single soldier.”

“ Yeah, ‘cause jumping two of us with five bank robbers was real tough,” Sam muttered. Kim made a soft noise that could have been a laugh, and Sam tried to catch her eye from across the room before she remembered they were both wearing helmets.

“ Either way,” Jason said, standing back from the console. “We’d better go loaded for bear.” He looked meaningfully at the console. While they were hidden now, they all knew that the compartments around the base of the device held powerful weapons tuned to them and the morphing grid. They’d been practicing since they’d received them, during the original fight with Zedd and retrieval of the Dragonzord. Trini and Zack had used theirs when rescuing Kim and Sam, but there was also a sword for Jason, a bow and arrow for Kim, and a double-bladed lance for Billy. And of course the Dragon Dagger that allowed Sam to call the Dragonzord from wherever she was.

“ Of course, of course.” Alpha made a gesture at the console and the panels opened, sliding out and upwards to reveal the weapons. Wordlessly they retrieved their weapons and stashed them in holsters that appeared in their armor. Billy separated his lance into two escrima-style blades, storing one on either hip.

“ Alright.” Sam blew her breath out in a long sigh. “Are we ready?”

“ That’s my line,” Jason muttered, without animosity, and Sam cracked a mirthless grin.

“ Let’s go,” he said aloud, and with a nod to Alpha and Zordon they headed for the gorge.

The location they’d been provided was about halfway into the forest surrounding Zedd’s base. The moon filtering through the trees cast long, stark shadows that reminded Sam of the night this had all started, when she and Billy made their way to the school.

“ Eyes peeled.” Jason’s voice was tense. “We know these guys like an ambush.”

“ Not if they want to beat you outright.” That was Alpha. “An ambush would be playing dirty.”

“ If that’s actually what he wants,” Sam countered. “Luring us here under the pretenses of fair play.”

Alpha didn’t answer.

As it turned out, they didn’t have to worry. With a crackling of sickly-dark energy that made Sam’s skin crawl, six figures appeared in front of them.

“ What the  _ fuck _ ?” Zack sounded confused and furious at the same time, and Sam couldn’t blame him. Their opponents — one for each of them — were  _ Rangers _ . Or at least were wearing Ranger armor.

“ Are you seeing this?” Jason asked, and Sam could hear faint, but frantic, beeping over the communicator.

“ I am.” Alpha’s voice was tense.

“ They’re not really — I mean, they can’t be, right?” Sam could see Trini shifting at the end of the line they had formed in the clearing.

“I don’t know. I don’t know _what_ this is. Just be careful!”

“ It doesn’t look like they have weapons,” Sam noted. “We might have that on them.”

“ No using them until we absolutely have to,” Jason told them. “And no Last Resort unless, well.”

“ Unless we need a last resort.” Kim’s voice was grim as she slid her left foot back to settle into a fighting stance. The others were shifting their weight similarly; Zack had rolled onto the balls of his feet and Jason was in a low, heavy horse stance.

“So glad that you could join us.” The figure in the middle of their formation spoke, and Sam’s eyes narrowed. She knew that voice. She _knew_ she knew that voice. But it was distorted, almost like those witness-protection voice filters, too deep to sound natural and reverb around the edges. But she _knew_ that voice.

“ Be rude to ignore such a polite invitation.” Jason’s voice was flat.

“ Oh,  _ manners _ .” The speaker placed a hand on their chest. “Love to see it. Know what else I love to see?”

It must have been a signal of some kind because the group launched themselves at the Rangers. Sam was forced to roll to the side to avoid a vicious kick aimed right for her head.

Her opponent’s armor was a perverse version of her own — opalescent green, but overlaid with some kind of hard black mesh that spread like spiderwebs, thicker in some places than in others.

“ One of us is going to have to change.” The jibe came out as more of a grunt as Sam dodged another wide swing. There was no response from her opponent, and she tried again as she landed a hit. “Come on, I’m hilarious.”

“ You’re a  _ terror _ .” Sam blinked behind her visor, and her surprise almost got her a solid blow to the solar plexus, but she brought her arms up just in time.

“You don’t even _know_ me,” she said. “You need a minimum of six months acquaintance to confirm my terror level.”

“ I know enough.” Another swing. They were becoming more vicious, Sam noted, the more they talked. “I know I cowered under a cashier station for four hours while those  _ things  _ you summoned ransacked the town.” A fierce kick that Sam had to dodge or risk having her leg broken. She was completely on the defensive now, horror growing in her chest. “I know I still can’t go outside by myself. I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, constantly terrified I’m going to be attacked again.”

Sam dodged another strike, almost crashing into Trini, who instinctively shoved her away. She looked to be similarly defensive, pushed back farther and farther by her sickly yellow opposite.

Her mind was racing. Her first thought was to defend herself, but that would confirm that this person had seen her face. Equally stunning was the thought that this was a normal person, someone from the town that Zedd had recruited.

And that was what made it click. She put a face to the voice that had come from the corrupted pink armor.

“ Amanda,” she hissed. “Kim, that’s  _ Amanda _ .” She heard Kim make a noise of confirmation that turned into a choking gasp as she was slammed into a tree trunk.

Kim already knew, apparently. Now Sam just needed to figure out who her own double was.  “ So Zedd recruited people that hate us,” she said to them, ducking under their next swing and tackling them to the ground. “Problem is, I don’t know  _ you _ .”

“ Of course you don’t.” They struck out at Sam’s chest and arms. Even at their disadvantageous position, it  _ hurt _ . “Your destruction was just  _ random _ , you —“

“ _ Hey. _ ”  Sam caught their wrists. “I never ordered the putties to  _ attack  _ anyone. I wasn’t even really...myself at the time.” Even in her own ears it sounded like an excuse. “I’m sorry,” she added, more gently, though struggling with their attempts to break her grip made it come out more strained than she intended. “I’m sorry for scaring you. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

“ Fuck your apologies.” They snapped their wrists out of her hands and shoved at her. The impact shouldn’t have even rocked her backwards, given that they were lying prone, but Sam fell over backwards into the dirt. Looking up she saw Jason in a similar position, and Trini stumbling off-balance.

“ Are they just fucking with us or are they actually stronger?” Zack asked, sounding more tense than Sam thought she’d ever heard him.

“ I think they’re stronger.” That was Alpha, back in their communicators for the first time since before the fight. “The impacts on your armor are much harder than anything you’ve registered in training.”

“ We gotta get out of here.” Kimberly’s voice was a breathless, choking sound.

“ Last Resort?” Sam asked, rolling to her feet.

“ Last Resort.” Jason was already drawing his sword as the others made their way towards him.

Zack extended the handle of his axe, throwing it to Kimberly, who affixed her bow to the end of it. The metal shifted, fusing with the other weapon almost seamlessly.

“ Trini!” She tossed it away just as Amanda tackled her to the ground, and Trini caught it with one hand as she sliced a line across her opponent’s armor with the sai in the other. The impact sparked in the darkness, but that was the only sign she’d made any contact with the weapon.

Trini slapped her daggers against either end of Kim’s bow, barely waiting for them to meld before tossing it to Billy, who had his lance already out. He jumped backwards as he affixed the two halves next to Trini’s sai, and called out for Jason as he launched the amalgamation of weapons at him.

Jason laid his sword on top of the whole thing, and it fused with it with a crackle of energy that lit up his visor and reflected off of his opponent’s armor.

Sam yanked the Dragon Dagger out of the holster at her hip, slashing at her attacker to make them jerk backwards, away from her. The dagger wasn’t part of the combined weapon, but she had discovered a fun new feature as she trained with it in the caves.

Aiming it just to the left of her opponent, she forced her will through it and watched it emerge as a verdant green beam that impacted the ground next to their feet. The small crater it left smoked slightly, and they danced sideways to avoid it.

“ What the  _ fuck _ ,” she heard them mutter. She fired again, prompting another jump, and then across the clearing to make Amanda dance towards the center, as well.

“ Can’t do anything by yourself, huh?” Sam heard the distorted male voice, also vaguely familiar, as Jason aimed it at him from six feet away.

“ Fuck off, Brycen.”

_ Oh, right, that douche _ . It was the only thought Sam had time for before Jason fired the weapon and the night lit up blindingly blue and white. The sound was both shrill and loud, and at the edges of the blast Sam could see bodies flying backwards.

“ Come on!” Sam’s visor had darkened almost immediately to shield her eyes from the blast, but she was still blinking away stars as she darted towards Billy’s voice.

“ Where are we —“

“ I set up a thing out here a few days ago.” Billy interrupted Jason, sounding breathless. “Just west of here. It’s not far.”

“ You’re a genius, Billy.”

“ ...yeah.” Billy sounded uncomfortable.

“ We couldn’t use that to get here?” Zack demanded.

“ Didn’t want them finding it,” Billy responded.

“ Shut up and  _ run _ ,” Trini snapped, and they complied.  


* * *

They collapsed through the teleport and into the control room, Billy yelling from the bottom of the pile.

“— _ n’t all go through at once! _ ”  He looked around as the others rolled away, sitting up and popping his visor open to glare at them.

“ Do you wanna get atomized?” he demanded. “Because that’s how you get atomized.”

“ We didn’t have a choice, Billy.” Jason’s voice was very,  _ very  _ tired from where he was laying on his back.

“ Can we lock that teleport?” Sam was already asking, scrambling towards the center console where Alpha was standing. “If they find it —“

“ They need my access key,” Billy called over.

“ I don’t trust them not to have spoofed that too,” Sam shot back. “That’s how they did that — the armor — mine and Kim’s stones —“

“ Sam, what are you —“ Kim stood, leaning heavily against the railing that surrounded the console.

“ My dream,” Sam interrupted. “When we were in the medbay. Remember I said Amanda was in it?” The details were flooding back to Sam now, as was frustration that she’d ever forgotten them. “That’s what he did, he took our coins and figured out how to make his own. Six of them.”

“ That’s why the morphing grid was so messed up,” Alpha said, horror in his synthesized voice. “The false stones were still connected to it, both the same as yours and not...”

“ Exactly.” Sam sat heavily on the step down from the dais. “And then he recruited people who hate us and gave them our abilities.”

“ How?” Trini demanded. “We couldn’t even morph until we got over our bullshit.”

“ That part I don’t know.” Sam put her head in her hands as Kimberly sat next to her, laying a hand on her arm. “I don’t know anything.”

“We can’t beat them.” Jason was sitting up now, though he hadn’t quite made it back to standing. “They were just _better_ than us.” His voice was thick with frustration, and Sam entirely understood. If they’d had the high ground or a secret weapon or something it would have been different. Being beaten flat-footed at your own game…

_ Which was exactly the point _ , she realized with another wave of frustration.  _ He wanted us demoralized. Which we absolutely are _ .

“ There is a way,” Zordon said, and everyone looked up at him. “You will need to enhance your armor.”

“ That’s possible?” Sam frowned. “When I asked about repairing mine...”

Alpha held up a finger. “Did I say it was  _ impossible _ ?”

“ Hair-splitting little...”

“ It will not be  _ easy _ ,” Zordon interjected. “You must obtain the materials. They fell from the ship when it crashed.” Alpha pulled up a projection of the globe, zooming in and in until it was centered on north eastern Africa. “This is where we estimate it landed.”

“ The Sahara?” Zack’s voice was almost a squeak. “The  _ Sahara. _ ”

“ Egypt.” Kim was squinting at the map. “Maybe we’re lucky and it’s near a town.”

“ Okay but how do we get to  _ Egypt _ ?!”

“ We can teleport,” Billy said.

“ Is there an anchor in Egypt?”

“ Please stop saying ‘Egypt’,” Trini muttered from where she had her head tipped back against the wall, eyes closed.

Billy started speaking and stopped several times, holding up his hand as if asking for their patience. They waited, knowing he took a few tries to get started sometimes. “Academic club!” he said finally. “Finals. London. I can get a flight with a layover in Egypt and set an anchor. Probably not anywhere near the actual site, but I can at least get you all over there.”

“ I don’t like you going alone,” Jason said immediately. “We don’t need to be split up right now.”

“ Oh no yeah, I know.” Billy grimaced. “Especially since the other Blue Ranger was — is — Kane.”

Silence fell over the room as everyone tried to figure out who Billy was talking about. It was Sam who finally made a noise of realization. “Nerd drama!”

“ Nerd drama!” Billy nodded at her and she dropped back against Kimberly. The night she and Billy had gossiped while walking to the school felt like a million years ago.

Billy quickly filled everyone else in, and Jason’s jaw just clenched tighter.

“ I don’t like it,” he said quietly, hands on his hips.

“ I hear you,” Sam said, sympathy in her voice. “But if you’ve got a better plan I’d like to hear it.” He gave her a hard look and she lifted her hands, counting her next points out on her fingers.

“ We can’t let Zedd get the Zeo Crystal. We have to assume his new goons can move freely around Angel Grove. We have to be able to beat them. We can’t beat them unless we soup up our armor. We can’t soup up our armor without the stuff in the desert. We can’t search the desert alone.” She spread her arms out in a shrug. “I don’t see an alternative, boss.”

“ Don’t call me that.” The rejoinder was automatic, as Jason rubbed at his eyes with a thumb and forefinger.

“I’ll be fine,” Billy said. “I don’t _think_ he’ll pull anything in public.”

“ They probably need to fly under the radar the same way we do,” Kimberly said.

“ Which will be a fun trick after all six of us disappear into thin air,” Zack pointed out, and the room fell silent as the implications hit them.

“ I don’t see an alternative,” Sam repeated quietly, and Jason just nodded.

“ We’ve got until the finals to think of a plan B,” he said. “We rest until then.”

“ If we  _ can _ ,” Trini said darkly, without opening her eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

But it seemed Zedd’s Rangers were done with them for now. Amanda was limping slightly, and Brycen had an impressive set of black eyes when Sam next saw them — seemed their healing factor wasn’t quite the same as Zordon’s Rangers. Not that Sam felt any better; bruises on top of bruises had her healing almost at the rate of a normal human, though Alpha was quick to point out that what she’d been through would have  _ killed  _ a normal human. She tried not to think about that too much.

Kimberly spent a lot of time at her house. It was empty more often than her own, and it was easier to not have to hide the bruises until they healed.

They eventually came up with a plan A.5, a designation Billy objected to on the grounds of “that’s not how that works”. If they couldn’t get out of going to Egypt, they needed someone to cover for them. Leaving one person behind made them a sitting duck, and leaving more split the party more than any of them were comfortable with.

So they were going to tell Sam’s dad. Everything.

The cover would be a camping trip in the mountains of the neighboring county, close enough to be a reasonable destination but far enough that their parents couldn’t just drive out and check. Hopefully they would trust Sam’s dad to supervise the group.

“ That depends on him agreeing to this at  _ all _ ,” Sam cautioned them again as they approached the house. “He wasn’t nuts about the ‘lying to family’ bit when I first explained it to him.”

“ We’ll make him understand,” Jason said.

“ Could you make  _ your  _ dad understand?” Sam shot back. “Any of this?”

Jason’s shoulders rolled uncomfortably, but he didn’t reply.

“ Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Sam sighed and glanced down at her phone. She’d texted that she was bringing friends over, capitalizing the plural so he wouldn’t think it was just Kimberly. It had been read but not replied to, and she huffed a little as she shoved it back in her pocket.

“ I just don’t see an alternative,” Jason told her with a meaningful look, which she responded to with a glare.

“ Ass.”

He didn’t have time to respond as they approached the door, and Sam turned around to face the group.

“ Let me go first,” she told them. “He’s gonna think we’re ganging up on him if we all go in at once.” She glanced at Kimberly. “Actually, you come too.”

“ Biased,” Zack complained, and Sam rolled her eyes.

“He’s _met_ Kim,” she told him. “...also I don’t wanna be in there alone.” She took Kim’s hand. “If you hear yelling, just...try not to hear.”

She pushed open the door, calling out for her dad.

“ Kitchen,” he responded. “Figured if you were bringing over a crew I’d need to feed them.” He stuck his head around the doorway. “They don’t all eat like you, do they?”

Sam smiled despite the anxiety fluttering in her chest. “Not all of them,” she said. “Can you come in here a minute?”

He walked out, wiping his hands on a dish towel and frowning. “Hi, Kim.”

“ Hi,” Kim said quietly.

“ You emphasized ‘friends’,” her dad reminded her, and she nodded.

“ Yeah, they’re...they’re waiting outside. Listen, I need to ask you something big.”

His face set into a hard line, and his eyes flicked over to Kimberly.

“ Is this…?”

“ It’s Rangers stuff, Dad. Kim knows.”

His eyebrows shot up. “She does?”

“ She is one,” Sam said quietly, and Kimberly laid her stone on the coffee table. Sam laid hers next to it, and Sam’s dad sat heavily in the recliner across from them.

“ You know, I had my suspicions,” he admitted, looking up at her. “Especially with the bruises.”

Kimberly blushed and pulled on her sleeves, but he just waved a hand. “Don’t, I’m actually kind of relieved it’s that and not...some of the other things I was considering.” He gestured for her to sit and she did, Sam settling next to her on the sofa. “So what’s this big ask?”

Sam took a deep breath in through her nose, took Kimberly’s hand in hers, and told him the whole plan. His face grew more and more stony the more details she revealed, but she forced the whole story out, trying not to break eye contact.

“ You sound pretty decided,” he said flatly when she was done, and she winced. “So I doubt you’re asking my permission.”

“It’s...not really a permission thing, Dad. We _have_ to do this.”

His jaw worked back and forth for a moment, and he said nothing. He didn’t even get up and pace, and Sam couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

“ I was almost okay with you throwing yourself at this...this  _ threat _ ,” he said quietly. “Because at least it was local. At least you were coming home at the end of the day. At least I kind of knew where you were. But this —  _ Egypt —  _ halfway across the  _ fucking  _ world — excuse me, Kimberly.”

“ It’s fine,” Kim squeaked. She wasn’t quite hiding behind Sam, but she wasn’t  _ not  _ hiding behind her, either.

“I’m not exactly thrilled about it either,” Sam told him. “I don’t _want_ to be halfway across the world, I don’t _want_ to dig through the entire fucking Sahara —“

“ Watch your mouth.”

“— for something that could be the size of a grain of rice for all I know. I want to be here, and have as normal of a life as I can, and keep you and all the rest of Angel Grove safe.” She was surprised to feel tears starting in her eyes, and Kimberly squeezed her hand. “But to do _that_ , I have to do _this_ , and I need your help.” She paused. “ _We_ need your help.”

“ I assume you don’t mean just the two of you.” He gestured at Kimberly.

“ ...no.”

“ The rest of your friends, lurking in the bushes out there.” Sam looked over her shoulder in time to see several shadows scamper out of sight of the window, and repressed a smile.

“ Yeah.”

There was a long pause before he sighed heavily. “Alright,” he said, standing. “Get them in here. If nothing else, I’m not letting all this food go to waste.” He turned back to her as she stood to open the door. “This conversation isn’t over,” he said quietly, and Sam nodded.

“ Yeah. I know.”

Sam’s dad took down everyone’s information, pausing slightly at Jason’s last name and looking back up at him.

“ Small world.”

“ Small town,” Jason responded, smiling slightly but mirthlessly. Sam’s dad just nodded and kept taking down notes.

Kim was the last one to leave, giving Sam a quick kiss before jogging down the street to catch up with the others. In the low light, Sam saw her turn around and look back at her one more time, and waved before stepping back inside.

“ I take back what I said.” Her dad was standing in the middle of the living room when she shut the door behind her. “I don’t have anything else I can say, I don’t guess.” He met her eyes. “I know you have to do this. I know this —“ he waved the notepad with everyone’s information in it. “This is the only way I can really actually help you. And I don’t mind this being a safe place for you guys to meet up. I meant it for Kimberly, least I can do is extend it to the rest of you.” He rubbed one hand over his face. “But Sammy...this is a lot. This is a lot to leave me with.”

“ I know,” Sam whispered. “I appreciate it. That sounds really lame but I really,  _ really  _ appreciate it, Dad, it’s —“ She cut herself off as her dad held up one hand.

“ I get you,” he said, giving a quick, very small smile. “And I want to make sure you know I understand how important this is, and what a big deal  _ this  _ is.” He waved the notepad again. “But this is a really fucked-up situation.”

Sam leaned against the back of the sofa, laying her head on her forearms. “It really,  _ really  _ is,” she said into her jacket sleeve, and heard footsteps before feeling her dad’s hand on her back.

“ But in kind of a weird way,” he said quietly, “I’m also really,  _ really  _ proud.”

Sam looked up at him, finding a small smile on his face, more genuine than before. She straightened and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, finding herself squeezed tightly in return.

“ Thanks, Dad.”  


* * *

It was two days before Billy left for London, and the six of them were perched on various parts of their Zords, surrounded by burger wrappers and fry pods. The giant metallic forms were gathered in a tight circle, allowing them to talk to each other.

“ I had to quit,” Zack was saying. “To take care of my mom. I would have killed myself if we’d been at a competition and something happened to her.” He shrugged. “Guess I’m just  _ that  _ good a dancer, because they started losing. Lee blamed me.” A bit of straw wrapper went flying as he wadded it into a ball and flicked it off the end of one finger. “Now he’s in that jacked-up Zedd Ranger suit, trying to kill me.” His voice was both sullen and regretful at the same time, but the expression only stayed on his face for a moment before he turned to Trini. “What about you? Who’d you piss off?”

Trini glared at him for a long moment, long enough that Sam thought she was going to refuse to answer before she looked down at her food and started speaking.

“ Ex of mine,” she said flatly. “She wanted to go public. I didn’t. Didn’t end well.”

The group winced. Even the short, blunt explanation didn’t take the hurt out of her voice.

“ That fucking sucks,” Zack said, and Trini just tossed her hair over her shoulder as a response.

“ Found yours,” she called over to Sam.

“ Wh?” Sam looked up, hastily swallowing her mouthful of burger with a wince. “How?”

“ Ari Lynne,” she responded. “They had to get moved to the front of the room in AmHis because the back corner freaks them out now. Too enclosed, gives them panic attacks.”

“ Lots of people get panic attacks,” Billy countered.

“ Lots of people don’t show up to school looking like they lost a fight with an eighteen-wheeler,” Trini shot back. “They had more bruises than skin. Don’t know why nobody’s calling CPS at this point, honestly.”

“ Zedd’s probably fucking with everyone’s minds,” Sam said bitterly, taking a long pull on her soda.

“ Why not ours?” Kim asked, frowning from where she was laying upside-down on her pterodactyl’s wing, hair swinging below her. “Why reveal their identities to us?”

“ We pretty much knew,” Jason pointed out. “Except for Sam.”

“ Plus, what better way to keep us on our toes?” Sam added sardonically. “’The people best suited to kill you are around you  _ all the time _ , nobody thinks anything of it, and if you try to be proactive about it you’ll look like a lunatic.’” She slumped back against the metal of the Dragonzord, scowling. Something landed in her lap, startling her — an apple pie, wrapped in paper. She looked up at Kim, who just winked. It made Sam smile despite herself.

“So we go to Egypt,” Billy said. “Well, _I_ go to Egypt, first. Get as close to the thing as I can. Set the teleport. Bring you all over.”

“ Find some really big combs,” Sam said, making everyone look over at her in confusion. “Watch more movies,” she ordered, gesturing with her apple pie for Billy to continue.

“ We hunt through the desert, hopefully find this thing quickly, and get it back home to Alpha.”

“We _can’t_ take too long,” Jason told them. “If it’s longer than a few days we’ll have to go home every day and just search at night.”

“ Or else get my dad arrested for kidnapping.”

Jason pointed at Sam. “Right. That.”

“ I don’t know if I said this already,” Zack called over, “But your dad is really cool, Sam.”

Sam nodded vigorously. “He really is.”

“ He didn’t have to let us use your house as a backup base,” Jason said. “That was really cool of him.”

“ He’s been cool about a lot of stuff.” Kimberly had finally had to roll over onto her stomach, and Sam looked up to smile at her.

The group settled into a comfortable silence, eating and just enjoying each other’s presence, the weird little circle they’d formed more or less against their will at first, but was now an integral part of their lives. Without any one of them, the whole thing fell apart. Like spokes on a wheel, it might not happen at first, but the instability would eventually take them down.

Sam felt weirdly okay with that. People relying on her would have terrified her in the past, but it wasn’t one-sided. She could rely on each of them, and her dad. They could all rely on her dad, apparently, and that was gratifying in a way she wasn’t sure she was ready to examine yet.

The world was scary and getting scarier. But she couldn’t think of a group of people she’d rather face the dark with.   
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
